This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Bone grafts are commonly used in surgical procedures to replace missing bone, to repair bone fractures, and to fuse bone, such as during spinal fusions. Bone grafts may be autologous, but many allografts of bone material isolated from cadavers and obtained from a bone bank. Allograft tissue, which contains viable cells, must be stored frozen in a cryopreservative solution. The liquid cryopreservative must be thoroughly rinsed and removed from the tissue prior to transplantation. Typically, the graft material is contained in a vial, and must be carefully rinsed. The graft material is typically granular in nature and the rinsing process often leads to loss of material because the rinsing process is typically performed several times, and is cumbersome to perform. Additionally, the rinsing process involves physical contact with the graft material, which increases the risk of contamination.
Open bore graft delivery syringes are common in orthopedic applications. Open bore delivery syringes currently on the marked are sealed with either a flat end cap, or a luer or nozzle-type cap for adding additional fluid. To achieve the desired handling characteristics of any hydrated bone graft (autograft, allograft, synthetic, xenograft), it may be necessary to adjust the graft-to-fluid ratio, by removing some of the fluid while retaining the graft. Using existing delivery syringes would not address this issue because the granular graft material would clog the luer/nozzle fitting, preventing any liquid, such as cryopreservative, from being removed.
A more efficient means for thoroughly washing graft material that would also minimize tissue loss during transfer while not compromising graft sterility is needed.